By Olakunle Agboola – John Pombe Joseph Magufuli (29 October 1959 – 17 March 2021) was the fifth president of Tanzania, serving from 2015 until he died in 2021. He served as Minister of Works, Transport and Communications from 2000 to 2005 and from 2010 to 2015 and was chairman of the Southern African Development Community from 2019 to 2020.
Nigerian leaders travel often. They regularly traverse the length and breadth of the globe. Some have bought landed properties with stolen funds and have big houses in developed cities across the world. They have dual citizenship and the majority have their families’ abroad living in affluence with taxpayer money.
It is rare to see politicians’ kids in any of the public institutions in Nigeria. They rather go to private institutions or travel abroad, and this might justify why public institutions are underfunded and begging for immediate attention. The former president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari like his predecessors did not fall bait of travelling abroad for medical help in the eight years of his administration.
It became so difficult to build a world-class hospital in Abuja or Lagos that could cater to his medical help. This could have been sustainable and helped President Tinubu limit his medical trip to France. It is a national shame if political leaders cannot make Nigerian hospitals work and patronize them rather than fly abroad for medical tourism.
It is expected that the exposure of the political leaders should have impacted positively on the citizens, but most of them are only interested in looting the treasury and travelling abroad to enjoy it with their families. The political elites have a lot to learn from the former president of Tanzania, late President John Pombe Magufuli, nicknamed “The Bulldozer”.
Just days after taking office in late 2015, he cancelled the symbolic Independence Day fete and directed all the funds budgeted for the event to be used to widen a part of a highway notorious for gridlocks in the main city of Dar es Salaam. That was coupled with firing several government bigwigs in his anti-corruption crusade.
In his first week in office in November 2015, Mr Magufuli halted all foreign trips for public servants. He only approved emergency cases and the move was welcomed with open hands by the public as civil servants were often seen as wasting taxpayers’ money by making frequent foreign trips, some of which were not beneficial for the country, and doing so by flying in first or business class.
This has been a sustainable development in which overseas trips for public officials are limited in Tanzania. A central bank report in early 2017 revealed that the government had saved $430m (£330m) by limiting foreign travel between November 2015 to November 2016. Intentional leadership is what Nigeria needs and can only be achieved by the citizens waking up and taking the bull by the horns of demanding better governance.
The texture and worth of any democracy are measured by the level of the welfare of the citizenry, which makes the best definition of democracy, that of a political system that ensures the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It is only in that sense that we can think of democracy in Libya and Nigeria where the people are no less comfortable than the least comfortable person in America or anywhere else in the advanced countries.
However, in Nigeria, there is so much to be done with our democracy because the greater good is reserved for the least number of people. The complaints and stories trending on the newspapers, blogs, and social sites these days reveal so much discomfort which has increased the migration to Saudi Arabia or Uncle Sam’s (USA) country where democracy is perceived differently as a land of limitless opportunities for anybody who can think and work.
Lately, people are selling their houses, cars and landed properties to relocate and bid Nigeria farewell. They can’t feel democracy and the perfection of their human rights in place; saddened by the cloudy view of the supposed bright future of their families in their birthed country.
The onus in a situation like this lies within the ultimate leadership. The leaders should by now be concerned about this international shame that hangs on Nigeria. There is a need to wake up and start implanting the seed of high ideals, morality, ethical values, and selfless service. The “Magufulication” of Nigeria is all that is needed as this will restructure the political parties for a genuine leader with human feeling, and sympathy to emerge.
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